Even the newest of SEOs and marketers understand how important content is to developing a brand presence. Your content is who you are. It’s your voice in the market and what you use to convey your message to customers. It’s through the combination of your Web site copy, your blog, your article marketing, your pitches, and your social updates that you reach prospective customers and turn them on until they become full-blown customers. There’s just one problem.

You…well, you can’t write. Or at least that’s what you’ve been telling yourself for the past thirty years.

Because you don’t believe you can write, you seek out advice, often from writers (or self-proclaimed ones). You ask for their tools of the trade and writing advice. The problem is sometimes these folks point you in the wrong direction. They don’t mean to feed you lies or bad best practices. It just, well, happens.

For example, below are five well-intentioned pieces of writing advice that may actually do more harm than good when you’re trying to build content for an SEO campaign. Break these “words of wisdom” and the content you put out will thank you. It will also probably suck less.

“Listen to music while writing!”

This might be the worst piece of advice ever told. And how many times have you heard it? About a million. You’re told that if you listen to music while you write it will help you block out distractions and make you focus better. And it will. If you’re listening to jazz or classical music or anything that doesn’t have actual words happening. But most of us aren’t listening to that. We’re listening to the music we like. Music with catchy beats, sweet lyrics, and that makes us dance around in our chair without a hint of shame. Essentially, it creates an even more powerful distraction – the need to get all Kevin Bacon up in our office.

Because our brain can’t help but focus on the words we’re hearing, listening to music ends up making us less focused and more ADD than we’d be on our own. It’s not music that helps you tune out the world, noise does. Want to put yourself into a trance of super-focus? Let SimplyNoise help you white-noise your way to productivity or check out RainyMood to let rain and thunder guide the words out.  These two sites will help you block out disruptions WITHOUT adding more to the fire.

“Just write what you know!”

Not sure what to write about in your blog today or what to create a sizzling new infographic around? Just write what you know! I’m not sure what that really means, but it’s terrible, vague and misleading advice. You should not write about what you know. No one really cares about all the things you know. What they do care about is what they WANT to know. The information they’re interested in and the advice that’s going to help them do something in their lives better. It’s not about you at all.

But fret not! The truly fantastic thing about having customers on the Web is that they tell you, every day, exactly what it is they want to know. They’re leaving you messages in your analytics, your site logs, through the conversations they have with you via social channels, and through the search modifiers they use. Don’t write what you know. Write what they’re asking for. And use all the information you have at your disposal to figure out what the heck that is. Then serve it back to them.

“Write to impress!”

Telling someone they need to “come off smart”, “impress their audience” or “sound like an expert” in the content they write is a fantastic way to paralyze them or put them on a sad journey of incredibly awkward writing where their Web site copy reads like their 10th grade essay on Shakespeare. You don’t need to sound intelligent or like a scientist when talking to your customers. You just need to sound like them.

• You need to use the same words they do.
• You need to use the same paint points.
• You need to show the same fears, the same concerns, the same wants.
• You need to be weird like them.

The best way to ruin the writing you’re doing for your SEO campaign is to focus on yourself or your company. Focus on them. Sound and represent them. That’s where the magic happens.

“Writing is serious business!”

You’re writing content to introduce people to your brand, to communicate with them, and to drive them to take a particular action. You’re not curing cancer (unless you are) or saving puppies (again, unless you are). So take off the cape and remove all that pressure that goes along with having to save the world on a daily or weekly basis and just write.

Write to your audience. Tell them exactly what you want them to know, in your own words but in their language. Talk to them like you’re talking to your closest friend. If it helps you get the words out, have a drink or two while you’re trying to find your magic and get it all out. You can write buzzed, you just have to make sure you edit sober. Do whatever you need to do to remove the pressure. It’s not going to help you speak to your audience any more effectively.

“Only share when you have an original idea!”

If you truly believe that you can’t put finger to keyboard until you have something truly original and remarkable to say…you’re going to spend a lot of time NOT writing content to help your search engine optimization efforts. There are no original ideas left. Everything you produce is going to be a reflection of things you’ve consumed, thought about, were inspired by from someone else. And that’s okay to admit. It’s okay to mention how reading a blog post from Copyblogger changed the way you looked at copy and how Rhea’s post on OODA loops changed the way you handle the SEO process. You don’t have to be 100 percent original. You have to be interesting and valuable. Sometimes we confuse those and don’t write content that could be great.

Those are just a handful of “good writing myths” that I’ve seen suck the life out of many SEO campaigns or blog posts. What stumps your writing? Or what’s helped you break through and write content that your audience relates to?

Monday was Community Manager Appreciation Day, an online event started by Jeremiah Owyang three years ago to honor and recognize those who fight on the brand front lines every day. Last year I honored the day by offering up 8 ingredients that make a community manager and paid homage to a few folks who I think do it really well. This year I wanted to talk about something different.

I recently gave a community manager interview where I was asked whether CMs were finally being given the respect they deserve, what goes into the position, and what their roles are within an organization. You can read my answers to those questions and more over there but what was really on my mind is something I don’t think gets talked about enough – just how easily it is to burn out from the position.

As I’ve written before, being an online public face isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. There’s a dark side associated with always being on, having to manage several different social media identities (at minimum, yours + one branded account), a host of different platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Q&A sites, etc), your own blog (holla), wrangling fans, bringing out the best in people, responding to attacks, and constantly defending what you do to people in your organization and in your life. Those who spend their days working to build these communities and living such public lives can easily find themselves burning out from working on too many problems, too many sites, and trying to be too many things to too many people.

If you’re a Community Manager, how do you protect yourself?
Or, if you’re a brand, how do you protect the person you’ve put into this role and ensure they stay in it for a long time? Hiring and re-hiring not only gets expensive, but it makes it more difficult for your community to trust your public face.

Below are a few tips.

Set Boundaries

Don’t be a dummy; set boundaries for yourself and your community.

For example:

• When are you “on” as a Community Manager and at what time do you turn off?
• How often will you “check in” with the various social networks?
• What’s the priority level assigned to each site?
• What will you track and what won’t you track?

These questions are important to answer because they’ll help guide interaction and set limits that will help your Community Manager maintain their sanity. Not long too, it was expected that just because a Community Manager COULD do their job 24/7 thanks to Web-enabled phones and a constant Internet connection that they should essentially be on-call for the brand. However, we’re starting to see people step away from that belief and set up core operating times. This is beneficial for a couple of reasons.

First, it tells your community WHEN you’re there and actively listening and ready to engage. This is helpful for setting user expectations. If you tell your community you’re only there between 10am-6pm, then they won’t go looking for you at 10pm when they have a question. It also gives a Community Manager the time they need to detach. We can’t live on all the time. That’s how people die. Or go crazy and take lots of people with them.

Find Your Tools

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel or feel like you need to do everything by hand in order to be engaging with your community the right way. To help save time and mental energy, seek out tools that can help you do your Community Manager responsibilities more efficiently and more powerfully.

What types of tools should you seek out?

A tool like UberVu will provide you with real-time analytics; one dashboard to track all your social metrics like fans, followers, mentions, etc; the ability to assign tasks and manage your team from a central dashboard (!), provide demographic information, and more. Community Managers working for larger brands will have something like this already waiting for them in-house, however, for small- and medium-sized companies, UberVu can help streamline what can otherwise be a very fragmented and time-consuming process.

ViralHeat is another social analytics program to help you track mentions, measure sentiment, provide analytics and help give you the insight you need to essentially be in multiple places at the same time. It also integrates with SalesForce to help you do something with those leads you’re acquiring through social channels.

If you hung around during our 12 Days of SEO, you’ll remember that Joe, Outspoken Media’s SEO Manager, introduced us to Mention Mapp, a tool that helps you discover groups of people that Twitter users connect with the most. Enter in a username, and it will generate a visual representation of that person’s relationships. If you’re looking to understand who influences whom or find clusters you think your community should be part of, this can help you identify those pretty easily.

The tools listed above are just a tiny sample of what’s around there. As a Community Manager, depending on what you find yourself doing most often, there are tools to help with content management, tracking events, managing multiple Twitter accounts, etc.

Befriend Other Community Managers

We all need to vent and be around people who understand what we do and what we’re struggling with. It’s for that reason that attending BlogWorld Expo has become one of the absolute highlights of my year. It’s one of the few conferences I can go to and be surrounded by people who do exactly what I do, understand the pressures, and who are passionate about it. As Community Managers, it’s really important that we have that outlet. If you can’t get to a show like BlogWorld, participate in Twitter Chats related to the subject. There’s a Communication Manager Chat every Wednesday from 2pm-3pm Eastern. Get involved. Or if you’re not ready to talk yet, at least listen. Not only is it a chance for you, the CM, to hear about issues your colleagues are facing but it can also be a way to highlight your brand and the community you’re forming there.

If that’s not your scene, talk to your boss or the people on your team about the stresses you’re feeling or what your day looks like. Sometimes talking through problems can help you find answers you wouldn’t have found on your own. Or someone will say something in that meeting that will put your brain on a different path and open up new doors.

Keep your perspective

• If you can’t blog today, the world will not explode.
• If you can’t tweet today you’re sick, your community will be there waiting tomorrow.
• If you put off responding to that blog comment for an hour to eat lunch, the world will forgive you.

No, I swear, that’s all true even if it doesn’t feel like it is!

We hire Community Managers to be work on the front lines of our brand. It’s a huge investment – both for the CM and for the company whose put them in that position. Make sure you’re taking care of your brand’s public face. Because why burn out is dangerous, it’s even more dangerous when the person burning out for your company has access to your company Twitter account. ;)

For all the CMs out there, how have you avoid burning out? What works for you?

Oh, and video meme anyone?

It started innocently enough. My buddy Matt Sullivan read an article on Fast Company about Chobani tickling the taste of Pinterest. He thought it sounded similar to the love letter I had written earlier, so he sent it to me via Twitter knowing I might want to check it out.

The “flavor Tourettes” line is in reference to a quote found in the Fast Company article. When discussing how fanatical people are about engaging with the Chobani Facebook page, Chobani’s digital communications manager Emily Schildt is quoted as saying:

“We call it ‘flavor Turettes’ in-house,” she quips. “We get about a tweet per minute, and I would say 50% are about our newest flavor, apple cinnamon.”

No. Really. That was printed in Fast Company.

I wouldn’t call myself easily offended but I was surprised to see that when speaking on behalf of Chobani, Emily told the entire audience of Fast Company that internally the company refers to their Facebook page that way. That’s probably something you want to keep in-house. Or, you know, not do at all.

But it didn’t end there. @Chobani saw that Matt had sent me the link and decided to “engage” and “hop in the conversation”.
They did so with the following tweet:

That sound you just heard? That was Chobani falling in the 6-foot hole they had already dug for themselves.

This post isn’t meant to jump on Chobani. They made a mistake (and apologized for it) just like every company is prone to make mistakes when they enter new territories. But that’s the point, we’re all prone to these mistakes and some of us don’t all have the “forgiveableness” of an established brand like Chobani.

If you’re entering social media, you or someone on your team is going to do something stupid. I mean colossally stupid. What can you do to help avoid the mistakes instead of bulldozing right into them?

These three things.

1. Learn how to best leverage “human” for your business

We hear all the time how social media allows us to put a human face on our business, but I’d venture to say that most brands have absolutely no idea how to use that. It’s great advice for talking points or to sound really smart when you’re talking to your higher ups, but what does human business really mean for your brand? What is it going to get you?

I look at the idea of human business or social business as an opportunity to find an engaged audience by leveraging what is weird about you. To me, being human means accepting that we’re all weird and strategically letting our customers see what’s weird and authentic about us. It’s about picking what’s real, relevant, and appropriate for your audience and then serving it to them.

You probably want an example.

How about Buckley’s? If you’re not familiar with Buckley’s, it’s a Canadian cough syrup that I was first introduced to via another Fast Company article about authenticity vs perfection. In the article, Steve Jones writes about how Buckley’s has found an unlikely way to stand out in its market. Instead of trying to hide, sugarcoat or make excuses for what people have been saying about the product for years, Buckley decided to base its marketing around tackling it head-on and just admitting it.

Buckleys – It tastes awful, but it works.

That’s actually the product’s slogan. And it’s been effective. Buckley’s isn’t going after everyone who is sick, they’re going after adults who are sick and need some tough love. And, personally, I think it’s genius. They’ve found a relevant, real and appropriate way to market themselves in a crowded market. I’d venture that most cough syrups tastes pretty awful, but Buckley’s is the only one I know of that admits it, uses it, and doesn’t apologize for it. They’re not perfect and, you know what? You’re not either. Their honesty makes it easier for customers to trust the brand.

2. Create a company-wide social media policy. (And then stick to it.)

With a vision for how you’ll use social media in mind, you want to make it official and create some guidelines that employees (and even yourself) will be able to use to direct their involvement.

Matt already wrote about how companies shouldn’t make Tourette’s jokes on social media. And obviously he’s right, but these are exactly the kinds of things that happen when you attempt to “wing” social media or when you’re engaging with an unclear purpose or an undeveloped idea of what your company voice is. When you don’t take the time to iron down these details beforehand you open yourself up to employees going a little too far or making a quick that, in hindsight, maybe they should have saved for company IM instead of the company Twitter.

By writing a corporate social media policy you get the opportunity to ask and educate your staff on those important “where is the line” questions before you need to know them and put everything down on paper. In the post linked above, we went over some important questions that every business should ask when coming up with their own corporate social media plan.

For example:

• What is your purpose for being in social media?
• How does social media integrate into your employees’ existing roles?
• Who are they and what is their role?
• What sites should they be engaging on?
• What are the best practices for engagement?
• How should you handle common issues?

The best way to avoid someone driving off the road and creating a horrible, horrible accident is to teach them how to drive the car before they get in it. Not after they’ve already crashed.

Define what “being human” is NOT

Okay, so let’s be real. You never want to tell an employee they have full permission to “be weird” and “human” while speaking in the voice of your brand because they’re not going to know what that means. You also can’t tell them to “use common sense” because, well, not everyone was born with it. While you’re laying out the ground rules for what is expected of your team in social media, you may also want to explain what behing human does not mean.

For example, giving life to your brand does not mean:

• Being disrespectful.
• Being offensive.
• Being rude/difficult to deal with and calling it “authentic.”
• Being viciously snarky
• Talking to your audience like you’re both drunk at the bar.
• Sharing every thought that enters your head.

That sounds like stuff everyone on your team should already know, right? Yeah, they don’t. And you don’t want that one bit of stupidity to bring down your entire company.

Social media is helping all of us to pull back the curtain and let our customers see more of us and our brand. But that doesn’t mean letting everything hang out in the process. Have a vision, create a plan, and then put it into action. Because your customers are listening. Know what you’re telling them.

Hi! Oh…you’re here.  Fine. I guess that means I have to stop eating cake now. Did you hear we celebrated a birthday this week? If not, check out Rhea’s post from earlier this week where she talks about Outspoken Media in 2012, what we’ve been up to and what’s still to come.  It’ll give you a pretty good glimpse into why we walk around so excited all the time. [It's because our team is awesome.]

But it’s time for Weekend Coffee Links! Our collection of everything that caught our eye this week. Ready to jump in?

• How to be an effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer: This post takes the idea of that color wheel we all learned about back in kindergarten and flips it on its head to talk about the emotions we all need to unpack. It’s a surprisingly interesting read.
• The science of willpower: Everything you ever wanted to know about willpower and how to get more of it.
• The rise of the new groupthink: How teamwork hinders creativity and why introverts like yours truly have it all figured out. ;)
• 20 great excuses for not getting anything done at the coffee shop: I know, you have absolutely no idea what this article is talking about. We won’t judge.
• The Twitter bot devoted to a single grammatical error: Long live the Internet!
• The commoditisation of the entrepreneur: My buddy Ezra Butler makes the argument that entrepreneurship has become “the Ritalin of the masses”, focusing their efforts on doing something “positive”. Yeah. Go read it.
• Follow All the Morons Confused by Wikipedia’s Blackout in One Place: Wikipedia went dark earlier this week in its protest of SOPA.  However, not everyone go the memo as to why the site was taking the day off.  So the did what people on the Internet always do. They freaked the hell out.

And that’s it. What cool stuff did you stumble upon this week? Give it to me, Interwebz.

It’s January 19th. Crack open the champagne, because it’s time to celebrate!

What’s so special about today? Today is Outspoken Media’s birthday. A birthday that comes a couple weeks after the New Year, which means Lisa and I have been in a period of intense introspection (or holiday food comas, who knows). But isn’t that what we do on birthdays and at New Years? We think about the past and how we got here and we think about where we’re going.

When you own a business, those are the most important questions to ask yourself:

How did we get here?

Where are we going?

So, stop and think about those questions for a minute. Whether you own a business or not. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Where do you want to be?

Your vision might be crystal clear, completely clouded-over or shifted a few degrees. Regardless of the answer, you probably have a vision, which is what drives you to do what you do everyday.

Defining the vision of a company can often feel incredibly complicated. You have to have a shared vision with your partners and shareholders and getting everyone on the same page can be difficult. You also have to develop a system of accountability for every stakeholder to ensure that you’re working towards that vision. And, you have to communicate that vision tirelessly to your team, customers and community because they will help keep you accountable to it.

When we started this agency we didn’t have a clear vision of what the business would look like in three years. What we did know without question was that we wanted to work with people we respect and we wanted to be proud of the work we produced. Those may seem like incredibly simple ideals, but for many businesses and employees, it’s difficult to achieve one or both.

With Outspoken Media, there is so much strength in this business, because of the team and community behind it. Our team believes in being fulfilled professionally and personally. And we don’t support them because we have to, but because we want to. In return their support, curiosity, drive, voice and quirkiness make this office the fun, fulfilling environment that it is. Then we turn to you, our community, and we see just as much insight, excitement and candidness. Sometimes it’s downright overwhelming to see what’s been built here.

So, I want to take just a couple more minutes of your time to talk about the future. What can you expect from Outspoken Media in 2012?

An outspoken team

Lisa has been the resident blogger for Outspoken Media since day one and we’ll never pretend to have an ounce the skill she possesses in just one pinky finger. But, you’ve heard a lot from Lisa and it’s time to hear more from the rest of the team as well, because they have unique insight into the daily challenges of SEO, reputation management, link building, client management, business operations and project management. Besides their experience, they have individual voices and interests that go beyond our company services and we want you to benefit from those voices as much as we do. Our vision changes with them, because the company is nothing without the team behind it and sometimes, someone will bring a skill set that can shake everything up.

So, you’ll be hearing more from our seasoned vets, Michelle Lowery and Danika Atkins, as well as, our newest members, Joseph Schaefer and Emily Cote.

Meet Emily

We haven’t publicly talked about Emily outside of hints in the 12 Days of SEO when “Elf Emily” gave us her Twitter confession and shared tips for conversion rate optimization. We had to see if she’d complete us and not only does she fit in, she keeps us on our toes. Literally. She’s got us doing daily exercises when we hit that awful post-lunch energy plateau.

Take a minute to welcome Emily and get ready, because you’ll be seeing more of her, as well as, the rest of the entire team in 2012.

An outspoken brand

As a company, we’re pretty passive. What I mean by that is we’re fortunate to have a strong branding officer who keeps us in your feeds and conversations. And, through our conference coverage and speaking schedule, we make some phenomenal connections. Those two channels alone mean we get a lot of leads. That makes it easy to put the brand on auto-pilot, because we’re so busy with client work. Unfortunately, there’s nothing worse than not pushing ourselves to evolve, especially to evolve to the level that we advise our own clients! At its core, a brand is nothing without relationships. Relationships with our amazing readers (THANK YOU!), our clients, our team and even our local community.

We get that and it’s time to do more with those relationships. We’re tired of dating casually, lets take this to the next level. We want to go steady with you. I know, actions speak louder than words, so stay tuned as we dive into the wonderful world of email marketing and other methods of connecting with and rewarding you, our loyal community members.

We want to give you more of us and our individual personalities. And, if you’re ever in the neighborhood of Troy NY, stop by the new office and co-work for the day or just say hi, the door is open.

We get asked often why we chose to stay in Troy to build Outspoken Media. After three years, I can say that there is no better fit for our bold, boutique business. We’ve gotten to know the talented professionals and startups that keep Troy’s numerous cafes and sandwich shops open and they keep us energized. You can’t spot these businesses so easily from the road, but they’re there, just like us. Troy’s tech community is booming from Ruby on Rails developers, app developers and gaming communities to data center management and web designers who also keep our walls stocked with whimsical and inspiring prints. As much as you give to us online, they give to us offline and in 2012 we will be just as outspoken with this local community.

An outspoken strategy

I read an article recently that discussed research on what CEOs actually do and it was really interesting to see the level of productivity increase when CEOs took the time to be *IN* their business rather than out of it schmoozing over expensive lunches. In 2012 I want to continue to work closely with this team, because while we want to be more of an outspoken team and brand, there is nothing more vital to the future of this business than the services we provide. We are finding ways to bring more value to our clients and our methods. In 2012 this will take the shape of structural changes, education, development and much more.

Lisa already told us which Internet marketing trends to watch in 2012 and we’re seeing the same.

Local. Mobile. Social. Cloud. Apps. Security.

There’s so much going on in 2012 and it’s only the 19th of January! The role of the SEO has grown and though we define ourselves by that term, we are truly becoming digital strategists. We have to to fit the needs of our clients and the demands placed on them by new technology and every-changing search features (and sometimes shrinking) and new social networks like Pinterest or Google+. We’ll be working to find the most effective ways to leverage these changes and offer value to our clients through them.

Beyond the educational arm of Outspoken Media, we’re improving our internal processes to make training rock. And, we’re BUILDING TOOLS! I’ve mentioned this before and it’s still probably my favorite part, because it’s giving the team ways to maximize their time and stop feeling bored by the mundane tasks. It frees up our brains to focus on the most important part — analysis and strategy. For our group of nerds, that’s like Christmas morning and we’re proud of that.

There’s a lot more going on under the hood of course outside of the team, the brand and the strategy. We have big plans internally for continued education, process development, new services, project management, business development, client management, tool development, employee benefits, organizational development and business operations. However, unless you’re a freak like myself, you probably don’t want to talk business theory and management for another hour. If you do, feel free to contact me directly of course (rhea@outspokenmedia.com), I love this stuff! :)

And, circling back to that one precious word (vision), I hope what we’re trying to do here with Outspoken Media is a little clearer, because we’ve been having so much fun behind closed doors, it’s time we let you in on more of us and hopefully you’ll do the same. Thank you for your continued support and readership.

Photo credit: Aih.

Much of the Internet is going dark today in protest of the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and its counterpart Protect-IP Act (PIPA). SOPA was originally introduced as a way to stop copyright infringement, but it won’t do that. What SOPA will do is threaten the freedom and the stability of the Internet, as well as your ability to make a living off it. SOPA requires that sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook and other key Internet players monitor the Web and police content that may infringe on someone else’s copyright. Sites that are accused of violating SOPA will be shut down, without due process.

For example, if you tweet a link to a YouTube video, Twitter could be forcibly shut down. If you quote someone’s article on Facebook, Facebook must censor you or risk its own site. If YOUR SITE is accused of violating someone’s copyright, you could lose your livelihood. Again, with zero due process. It’s legislation that puts far too much power in the hands of the government.

Why are the online protests happening today? Because the Senate will begin voting on January 24th.

How can you fight SOPA/PIPA and protect the Web?

Watch This Video

First, watch this video and help understand what’s at risk and what SOPA will really do.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Fight for the Future breaks down how the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and Protect-IP Act (PIPA) threaten the freedom and stability of the Internet. The government and corporations can block any Web site, foreign or domestic, for one infringing link, without due process. Social media sites will either be forced to censor its users or they risk being shut down if a user posts something the government deems infringing. With no due process, the government can push this as far as it wants. Or, perhaps, as far as we’ll allow it.

The video above does a fantastic job breaking down all the key points of the bill in language even if your mother will understand.

Read Opinions on SOPA/PIPA from Names You Trust

Want some other opinions? How about these:

• Google: End Piracy, Not Liberty
• CNN: SOPA Explained: What It Is and Why It Matters
• An Open Letter to Washington, signed by founders of FireFox, Google, Twitter, Flickr, Yahoo, LinkedIn, The Huffington Post, Paypal, Craigslist, Wikipedia, etc.
• Gizmodo: This is what an Internet protest looks like
• Oatmeal: An animated gif to explain what’s happening
• LifeHacker: All About PIPA and SOPA, the Bills That Want To Censor Your Internet
• MarketingLand: What All Marketers Need To Know About SOPA

Tell Congress Not To Censor Your Web

When you’ve had enough, go here: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/. When you land there, sign the petition.

What else can you do? Use this page to locate and then call your elected officials and tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA.

In the coming elections, don’t support any candidate that supports these dangerous bills.

Don’t be fooled. I know there aren’t too many online petitions and protests that have much merit, but this one affects all of us. It affects our sites, our businesses, and our livelihood.

QR codes are exploding. They’re on posters, window storefronts, coasters at the bar, and some businesses are even putting them on billboards (hi, your customer is DRIVING!). But what I’m noticing even more than the sheer explosion of QR codes is that often the QR code campaign is doing little more than embarrassing the brand it’s associated with.
As you may have guessed, I have an example!

Tech savvy as I may be, I’m not typically the type to scan a QR code. As a lady who can never find my phone in my purse, it just seems like a lot of work for very little pay out. However, I’m a sucker for Bill Cosby. He’s funny, he’s inspirational, and he brings back delicious childhood memories of pudding. So when I noticed that the back of his new book I Didn’t Ask To Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was) (no aff) had a QR code on the back I thought, what the heck? This has to be good.

Five minutes later after I finally found my phone in my purse, I scanned the bar code. What did I get for my troubles?

This.

I WILL STAB YOU!

The QR code led to a page with a giant video on it. A video that I can’t play via my Blackberry Bold. I waited a few seconds to see if something else would pop up, if there was something below the video (there’s not) or this page had anything to offer me other than a collection of Mr. Cosby’s social networking profiles and tweets containing his name. And when I realized it did not, I threw my phone back into my purse’s abyss, put the book down, and walked away.

Mad.

Would I have purchased the book had there been something on that page that blew my socks off? I can’t know for sure, but there’s a good chance. I was emotional, I was in the buying mood and I was interacting with a brand that already had my trust. But I didn’t take a second look at the book after I felt like my time had already been wasted.

Of course, Mr. Cosby isn’t alone in creating a lackluster QR code experience. It’s very often the norm. To help combat that, below are seven tips for creating a better one. So people maybe don’t go away angry. Or, you know, go away at all.

7 Best Practices For Using QR Codes Successfully

1. Remember that QR Codes & Non-Mobile Content Don’t Mix

The goal of creating a QR code is to attract and create an experience for an on-the-go consumer via their mobile device. That means the content you send them to must LOAD on their mobile device. Avoid the Flash, the large images and Web site bloat. The content you’re directing people to should be optimized for a mobile device and focus on that mobile experience. Don’t lose sight of what you’re doing because you’re trying to wear your fancypants.

2. Have A Purpose For Your QR Code

The “QR” in QR code stands for “quick response”. Think about that and let it guide you through your use of this mobile technology. Think about what kind of “quick response” someone may need from your brand.

If you’re a real estate agent, maybe you want to put a QR code on the bottom of your For Sales signs to allow interested parties to get additional information about the listing they’re looking at. If you’re a local pub, then putting a QR code on your coasters to allow people to view your beer selection or your daily specials may be worthwhile. The key is to serve quick information that is contextually relevant right now.

Or if you’re Bissell trying to sell me a deep cleaning system, maybe use a QR code to direct me to videos, product information, reviews, and a user guide. Actually, that’s exactly what Bissell did and, hey, I purchased one on Sunday.

3. Match Your Content To The Purpose

When The Red Cross created a QR code to encourage people to donate to Japan relief efforts they created this QR code to get the message across.

When scanned, users were taken directly to a donate page. The code matched the intent matched the call to action. Message received.

4. Focus On The Experience

More than just having a purpose for yourself, have a purpose for me. Give me something that is worth the time it takes me to dig out my phone, scan the code, and then wait for something awesome to pop up in my browser. For example, I was surprised to find out after the fact that Bill Cosby has a mobile app. Through the app, users can get candid photos, audio books, exclusive videos, his concert schedule, and other types of premium content.

HELLO!

Why am I not seeing THAT when I scan that QR code? Why am I not giving a taste of the premium content available through the app? Or a free chapter of the book I have in my hand that I can read to pique my interest even further? That would make sense. It would be interesting. And it would keep me interacting with Bill Cosby. Directing me to a video that I can’t load (a video that, as it turns out, isn’t interesting anyway) is definitely not going to lead me down a path of conversion.

5. Size & Placement Matter

The quickest way to ruin the QR code experience that you spent so much time crafting is to place that QR code in a situation that just doesn’t work. For example, like placing a QR code on a billboard when your customer is driving and won’t be able to scan it because they are driving. Or placing your code on a post, which is then wrapped around a pole, making it impossible to scan. If someone can’t scan your code, you’ve lost them.

You also want to take size into consideration. QRStuff.com recommends using a simple formula:

Minimum QR Code Size = Scanning Distance /10

Any smaller than that and your users are going to have a difficult time scanning properly.

6. Set Up Tracking

Don’t leave yourself with no way to track what you’re doing. Once you define your purpose, create a URL that you will only publish via your QR code so that it’s easier for you to track and measure later. This will allow you to keep record of how many people scanned it, when they scanned it, what days were post popular, the IP address, etc. All of this information can then be taken and either used to improve your next QR campaign or help you realize you need to reevaluate what you’re doing.

7. Test Your QR Code

Before you send that QR code into the wild, test it to make sure it works the way that you want it to. Is the page you’re sending your customers to mobile-friendly? If they have to take any additional steps once they’re there [enter an email address to redeem a discount, like your Facebook], are they able to accomplish these tasks? This may seem obvious, but as we saw with the Billy Cosby example above, not every brand performs the proper tests.

QR codes give brands the opportunity to hand deliver customers quick nuggets of content that are timely and relevant to them in that moment. But they only do that when used correctly.

Welcome to Saturday morning and congrats on another solid week in the books. And, um, what a week, right?  We had to sit a myriad of search-related fights. There was Google and Twitter, Google and the FTC, Google and Mocality Kenya, the list just went on and on. Okay, so maybe it was just Google being involved in fights.  Poor, Goog. It must be so hard to be an unstoppable search giant.

But enough about that. It’s time for some awesome weekend coffee links. Are you ready? There’s some good stuff below.  And don’t forget, feel free to share YOUR top link picks of the week in the comments.  I’ll go first.

• How Doctors Die: I found this really interesting. Ken Murray explains why doctors, who spend their entire careers helping people beat the odds and extend their life, are actually less likely to seek treatment when they, themselves, become sick.  After seeing how it plays out for others, doctors prefer to forgo extensive medical treatments and just enjoy the time they have at home with their loved ones.  Are they trying to tell us something?
• Booth Babes stir controversy at 2012 CES: This video from the BBC asks CES attendees whether or not they think ‘booth babes’ represent an effective marketing strategy.  Personally, I think it does a good job showing just how destructive these “booth babes” are and how they’re hurting, not helping, women’s place in the tech industry.
• The Leap Second Is Coming: Who ever knew this was an issue? It’s a good thing I didn’t because I barely understand it.  But it seems in June we’ll all get an extra second to use however we see fit. At least, I think that’s what’s gonna happen.
• Being Mad on Twitter: Margaret Cho writes an impassioned post on what it felt like growing up always being told she was ugly and overweight. She makes some great points on why we shouldn’t be so quick to criticize a woman’s body and how harmful it is to little girls.
• The 27 Rules of Conquering the Gym: Packed with all the rules and tough love you need, this had me in a total laughing fit. Well, at least when I wasn’t too busy nodding along and screaming, “AMEN!”
• The story behind ‘the best NYT correction ever’:  When you know it’s ridiculous, but you have to make the correction anyway.
• The complete guide of snapping the @#$% out of it: You can always count on Julien Smith to kick you in the teeth when you need it most. He does it again here.
• Time lapse of a baby playing with his toys: Babies are weird. So are their parents who time lapse four hours of video of said baby playing so we can watch his child squirm around the room and make a mess.  My dog does the same thing in way less than four hours. Just sayin’.
• Shit Nobody Says: The funniest of the Sh*t People Say meme that’s been going around. Mostly because this is all true. And you’ve probably said all of it yourself at one point or another.

Okay, that’s it from me. Whatcha got for me, Internet?

Well, it’s official. Google’s succinctly-named Search Plus Your World is live. And right on schedule we have our first real Internet cat fight of 2012. Huzzah!

Here’s a score card of what’s gone down in case you were sleeping. Or…working.

• Google launched it’s, um, search enhancement Search Plus Your World and put “your personal content and the things you care about written by the people you care about” right into your search results. Even more adorable, they did it pretending like that didn’t already exist. You know on other sites. So cute!
• Twitter is upset because it feels like Google is using Search Plus to purposely favor its own content, making Twitter content harder to find in the search results and presenting a bad search experience for users. Boo.
• Google then took time away from snacking on our analytics data to respond that Twitter actually asked for Google to stop taking its content so, I guess, THERE, they did!
• Eric Schmidt went into evil overload mode chatting with Danny Sullivan about how they’d love to talk to Twitter and Facebook about using their data…only they haven’t. Maybe if they did, he says, they could come up with new permissions, but no one talked about it. And he won’t talk about why they won’t talk about it. Just that they won’t talk about it and Danny should stop asking. Okay.
• Singer and soon-to-be-divorcee Katy Perry hasn’t chimed in yet to tell us her opinion of things, but she might after she reads Danny Sullivan’s excellent piece detailing Real-Life Examples of How Google’s “Search Plus” Will Drive Facebook & Twitter Crazy and realizes her lack of a Google+ profile is making her Google-invisible.

So as it turns out, it’s not just Facebook and Twitter that this will drive crazy. It’s driving us all crazy and ruining search and social for everyone.

Oh, and it may all turn out to be anti-competitive and illegal and shit. DRAMAZ!

First, let’s admit it. Google’s in a hard place. They need social data. That’s where users and everything around them is moving. Social is also Google’s big plan to help bring accountability back to the Web, so we’ve been watching the search giant dance around Facebook and Twitter and everyone’s wondering what’s going to happen and whose going to get over their issues first and do what’s best for the children (us).

Remember that Google used to have access to Twitter data. But that deal ended. Reportedly, by Twitter. Google’s never had access to Facebook’s data and I always get the feeling Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg are as fond of each other as YOU would be with the person openly gunning for your job.

Because there are no deals or permissions in place, Google still needs full access to social data so that it can carry on with its master plan of cleaning up the Web and making lots of money. But they don’t have it. So they created their own data by building Google+ and drug-pushing it like their engine depended on it. Now that Search Plus has made its appearance, not only is Google collecting search data, they’re shoving it in your face so you have no choice but to offer up your wrist for the Google barcode we all believe is coming shortly. Probably in 2014.

It’s all-Google, all the time, like no other social portal exists.

And there are several major issues with this.

First, and perhaps most importantly, it could be seen as anti-competitive (because it is) and there are already claims that the Federal Trade Commission will be brought in over new anti-trust concerns. When you’re the one holding the monopoly, you don’t just have to play fair, you have to play nice. Favoring your own content and making it harder to find OTHER’S content isn’t nice. And it doesn’t fly.

What also doesn’t fly are Google’s claims that they can’t use Facebook and Twitter data because they “don’t have it”. As Danny shows in his Marketing Land piece, Google has collected more than 3 billion pages from Twitter.com and is certainly indexing public Facebook data. So it’s there. And even if it wasn’t there via the open Web, most of us readily hand over this information to Google via our Google Profiles where we’ve very dutifully linked all our social accounts together. So if Google wanted to show Britney Spears’ or Katy Perry’s Facebook pages to go along with their Google+ accounts, they could.

But they don’t. Because Google doesn’t want that.

Instead, Google does what it always does. Someone brings a claim that Google’s kind of being an exclusionary jerk and Google smirks, plays a game of misdirection, and continues presenting a poor search experience by not using the data they have to give users the information they want.

I’m not going to pretend I’m certain what Google’s intent is here or that this whole thing is all Google’s fault. However, it was April 2009 when I wrote Google was forcing our hand, stealing our thumbprint after Google Profiles launched and Google was putting on the hard sell for users to enter the system. Now it’s 2012 and Google’s no longer forcing our hand.

Google’s forcing the FTC’s hand by purposely ignoring access to data they have and showing the attitude of a spiteful teenager.

The FTC anti-trust drama will play out in the courts and we’ll get to watch, should it get that far. But in the meantime, there’s one thing I do know for sure:

Users lose.

The unwillingness of Google, Twitter and Facebook to work together and do what’s best for users and, ironically, ALSO FOR THEM, hurts us, the social nature of the Web and is stalling whatever is next to come. It also makes Google look like a bully, Twitter kind of whiny and Facebook…well, Facebook scares everyone anyway.

But it’s enough.

It’s time to stop with the tantrums and the power struggles and realize we all get farther and the WEB gets farther, when you do what’s best for users and help them find the content THEY’RE looking for. Not the content you’re agenda wants to show. Isn’t that what all three sites are supposed to be about anyway?

I thought it was. I’m exhausted.

Updated 1/13/2012 :  Well, there you go.  The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has filed a complaint with the FTC alleging that the new Search Plus feature shows favoritism toward Google’s own network and violates Google+ users’ privacy.

Anyone who knows me will tell you: I’m completely commitment phobic. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of emerging social media networks. I cringe whenever a new one is released because I simply Can’t. Handle. Another. I’m on Twitter, I’m on Facebook – what else do I need? But every now and then a social network comes along that sweeps me off my feet and makes me believe in the amazingness of the Web all over again. And for me, the social network doing that right now is Pinterest.

Wait? Pinterest? Is that really anything more than an outlet for pictures of sleeping cats, fancy home décor and items deemed orange?

It is.

I’ll tell you why I love it and why, as a brand, you should love it too.

One of the great things social media has done is that it’s undeniably changed the way businesses and consumers are able to interact. It broke through an imaginary wall that had long divided the two and allowed businesses to share parts of themselves which, in turn, allowed consumers to seek out businesses that are weird in the same way or that believed in the same things. Last November I spoke at TEDx about how through the Web, weird became profitable. Weird became something businesses could leverage. To me, that’s where social media is most effective – when businesses use weird to be strategically authentic and show customers their essence. It’s when they let certain parts of themselves hang out so their customers can get to know whose behind the product or service that they love so much.

And that’s what Pinterest does really well. It epitomizes what is right and powerful in social media. Sure, Mashable may still use it to hoard marketing infographics for page views, but that’s not how it’s most effective.
Pinterest works best when brands show customers what’s going on below the surface. When they allow consumers to see the spirit of their brand by showing them not what they do, but why they do it – what inspires them, what moves them, what the company culture is based on. They do that all through topic-specific boards.

Some examples:

I’m a big fan of Chobani yogurt. You can find their products both in the Outspoken Media fridge and in my fridge at home. I’m also a fan of Chobani on Pinterest because instead of just trying to hawk yogurt, they give me a glimpse behind the company. Stuff that shows me not what they do, but what they’re about.

Their Nothing But Good board gives me a sense of company culture, the Chobani Fit board reinforces the brand’s focus on health and wellness, and the Let’s Travel board gives another look into what they value.

Sure, I know they sell yogurt, but now I get why. I see the passion behind the business.

Whole Foods also uses Pinterest to show what the company is about at its core. What I like about the Whole Foods Pinterest board is that, even if I’ve never had a single encounter with the brand, based on the boards I immediately know what it represents.

There are boards dedicated to the Whole Planet Foundation, the We’re Used To Reusing board shows Whole Food’s commitment to recycling, and the How Does Your Garden Grow board focuses on real gardens. Even if you’ve never been inside a Whole Foods, you get the essence.

Of course, it doesn’t just do that for brands. Pinterest can show you the essence behind any user. What if you were a brand targeting Joanna Lord? You heard her speak at Affiliate Summit, you’ve identified her as an influencer, and now you want to see what moves her. Just take a look at her collection of boards:

What more could you possibly ask for?

The power of Pinterest for brands is its ability to convey to customers the core of your brand, without hawking a product. Something else I really love is that it Pinterest forces brands (personal and otherwise) to think about this idea of being strategically authentic and to “pin”-point who they are, why they do what they do, and what they want people to know about them. For all the energy social media experts have spent trying to explain to people how to build their brand and how to decide what it is they want to be known for – Pinterest gave us all a visual example of how to do this simply by existing.

How could you not fall in love with that?

I love Pinterest as a tool to help brands cut the crap and connect with customers on a passion-level. Because that’s where business is done.

What’s your take on Pinterest? Are you using it? Ignoring it? Have you fallen in love like me?

[If you're a brand looking for some cool ways to leverage Pinterest, there's a great article on OpenForum that lists 5 cool ways.]